Broken Mirror
by Valentine'sMemory
Summary: Khalidah is a psychotic ex-Turk. She is found again under gruesome conditions, but refuses to speak about what happened to her. Rufus forces her into Turk duty again, and the Turk's are ordered to keep a close eye on her. Tseng has trouble controlling her. As she unravels, he realises that there is more to her story than they ever could imagine


_This was spawned from depressing music, my own twisted mind and my commute to work in a London store one day. It's dark and contains a lot of unsavory topics (Rape, self-harm, attempted suicide, murder and torture among anything else I can think up). If that doesn't suit you, you don't like it or you're offended, then look away now._

_Rate and review people! I have to warn you, it's pretty dark from the start. I've split it between Reno's point of view and Khalidah's instead of keeping it as one POV or one style of writing. Odd, yes, and I have no idea why I've done it this way. I hope it makes sense!_

_…_

__RENO:

The ID badge sat on the table, the young girl staring at me as if this whole situation were somehow my fault. I frowned and turned it over so her haunting eyes were no longer staring at me in accusation.

Tseng was busy reading through the e-mail from one of the other departments who had initially raised the alarm. They had responded to the scene of the murder of an unimportant Shinra employee, and found the Shinra Identification Card under the body. The girl in the picture wasn't anyone I had seen before, but Tseng seemed quite familiar with her face.

She had a mass of wild blonde hair that fell to her middle back and golden eyes that seemed to be identical to that of Chaos. Her skin was snowy white and her lips almost blood red. Her eyes held a certain spark of insanity that assured she would cope well with the life of a Turk but would spell out danger when she aged. I picked up one of the files on the table and opened it, but immediately regretted it.

It seemed that Khalidah had been experimented on for most of her life – like Sephiroth and Genesis. There were photo's of the experiments and their outcome hadn't been as desired. To me, it seemed fairly obvious that she should turn out to be a deserter if she had under gone the same sort of experiments that they had. Pictures of her experiments stared back at me, and I couldn't help but feel pity. She was a young girl when the experiments had started. Not only had she endured the agony of what Hojo had put her through, but she had had to suffer the cruel torture of those around her.

_**Name:** Khalidah_

_**Age Upon Employment:** Sixteen_

_**Marital Status:** Single_

_**Eye Colour:** (Naturally Blue) Golden After Demonic Infusion_

_**Hair Colour:** Blonde_

_**Distinguishing Features:** Two identical moles on neck. Birth mark stretching around left ankle. Scar in the shape of the letter 'R' on left shoulder blade._

_**Mental Status:** Highly unstable. Subject is highly dangerous and presents a desertion risk._

_**Other Notes:** Subject is highly tolerant of pain and torture. Speed and agility seem to be her two specialities while her physical strength is that of a SOLDIER's – but nothing impressive. She possesses extreme intelligence and is rather resourceful. Subject would make an excellent Turk; her superior would need to keep a rather close eye on her, however. _

I flipped through the pictures and shuddered. All pictures were of the experiments she underwent, but they showed evidence of the horrific torture she was put through at the same time.

Bruises covered most of her body, and cigarette burns littered her legs and chest. Rope marks looked angry and bruised around her throat and there was even a hand shaped bruise over her mouth. Scratches hid on the inside of her thighs, and restraint wounds marked her wrists. And that was just the abuse. Track marks from needle's littered the insides of her elbows and she was hooked up to some strange yellow liquid.

She had been quite tanned before, but years of being locked away with artificial lighting seemed to bleach one's skin. I shut it carefully and placed it on the desk, feeling a desire to smoke and drink heavily in an attempt to forget what I had just seen.

"Do you pity her?" Tseng's voice shattered the silence like a rock through glass. I actually jumped at the suddenness of it, glancing up at him through my bright red bangs.

"Sort of."

"Why?"

"Look what she was put through, yo! And so young."

"She's killing member's of Shinra, Reno. Murdering employee's of this building in cold blood for reasons we cannot possibly hope to know just yet."

"Revenge, most likely."

"It's a possibility, yes. But we cannot be sure. We cannot assume. And we cannot underestimate her."

He stood, gathering everything together and putting them back into the white box that sat in the middle of his desk. I watched him, leaning back in the chair and throwing my feet up on the desk. Just before the heels of my feet hit home, he slid a plain piece of paper under my shoe's.

"Did you work with her?" I asked. He hesitated for a fraction of a second before carrying on with his busy tidying.

"Briefly. I didn't make time to get to know her, but from what I saw, she was a loose cannon." He paused, making sure the box was carefully sealed before straightening his back, "I think she resented me. She wanted to become Head Turk, but she was simply too 'wild' to be put in such position."

"Wild? She ain't no animal, yo."

"She seemed it at times. I had a very hard time controlling her." He sat down and steepled his fingers, looking at me over his fingertips, "Think of a herd of horses. All of them lovely and sweet. And then you get one wild one, the one rogue animal that disrupts everyone else. She would be the wild one. She would make her own rules and break all mine. She would take matters into her own hands and do as she saw fit. And her anger…I had never seen anything like it."

"Why did she stay?"

"She was too valuable to loose. At that time, she was _the_ best Turk. And then she simply went missing on a routine mission."

"Elaborate for me, bossman."

"She was sent to an old laboratory to collect some files that we needed. It was simple and easy, and yet somehow vanished. She was supposed to call me when she reached the facility, but I received no such call. I assumed it was nothing to worry about and waited. Two days passed and I went out to locate her. The files were untouched but she had been in the lab. Her necklace had been hung over the door handles and left, her way of telling me that she had left us."

He fished in his pocked and pulled out his wallet, gently putting the necklace on the desk in front of me. It was a dainty silver chain with a silver heart hanging from it, glinting at me.

"You loved her?"

"No. I saw her more as a tearaway daughter. I saw something in her that no one else was able to. I saw a scared little girl who had been robbed of her childhood and thrust into the world of a grown up. She was angry and she was terrified that her past would come back to haunt her."

I toyed with the necklace for a bit, watching it shine against my fingers. Tseng tucked his wallet back into his suit and watched me, leaving me to think things over a little.

He was telling me not to pity her, telling me that she was dangerous and not to be trusted. Yet, he was also telling me that she was just a sad, terrified little girl who had been put through too much too young.

"We got a tip off last night. There is a strange residence near the rail way that may be host to criminal activity. It is believed she is hiding there."

He handed me another file, and I flicked it open to find pictures of a dingy, derelict house that looked as if it were all falling apart. The front garden was over grown, the grass reaching so high I could bet it was taller than me. The front door had been boarded up and the windows had cardboard stuck to them on the inside.

The back showed the same story. The back door was boarded up and the windows were covered. There was a path through the wild grass that had been hacked through, and recently it seemed. There were a flight of metal stairs that lead to a metal balcony and a third door which looked fairly clean and well used.

It was definitely being used, and judging by the state of it, used for criminal activity. But it didn't make sense to me. If she was such a brilliant Turk, surely her training would tell her to find a better, less obvious hiding place? Or even her common sense should tell her that this was too risky to use.

"Due to the nature of this, all four of us will be raiding the house. I believe that the four of us can take her down."

I nodded and stood, swaggering out of the room and into my own office to get my MAG-Rod and prepare myself. By the sound's of things, she was a pretty tough opponent, one who would test my skills to the maximum. But I wasn't too worried – she was a Turk of old. She couldn't match my skills.

I gazed up at the house that looked even worse than the picture. The paint was peeling badly, but it was barely noticeable through the heavy graffiti. Wild flowers grew uncontrollably in the long grass and the fence at the front had caved in. The metal gate hung off it's hinge and moss grew up the front of the house.

Tseng was picking his way through the garden with Elena behind him. Rude and I walked around the back It was pretty much the same story. Graffiti decorated the wall but the grass was shorter here. Litter and pieces of metal were strewn about all over the place. The only clear path lead up to the metal stair's that lead up to the first floor door.

Weapon in hand, I lead the way up. By now, Elena and Tseng had battled their way through the jungle and joined us as I scaled the stair's. Pausing to listen, the sounds of voices met our ears. We all turned to Tseng who now stood by the door.

"Don't give her any chance to escape. If you see her – go for the attack." He warned, "Don't let her get too close and don't turn your back on her. And whatever happens, don't show any sort of weakness."

He raised his gun and stepped to the side just as Elena sidestepped to stand on the other side of the door with her own weapon gripped tightly in her hands. I saw the fear on her face, the tension in her shoulder's.

Tseng's jaw was set and the hardness of his face made me realise the gravity of the situation. It suddenly slammed into me and I felt a shiver run down my spine as the realisation that I may _die_ settled into my otherwise empty skull. I shuddered violently and gripped my MAG-Rod just that much tighter as Rude prepared himself to kick open the door.

Fragments flew everywhere as wood splintered off in hundreds of different directions. The people inside hadn't expected us. They were all lazing about, playing cards, eating and drinking and smoking. The place stank of weed and alcohol and the room was stuffy with smoke. Dealing with the grunts was easy; boring even. They were nothing compared to my skills, and they fell like toy soldiers.

"Reno, Rude. I need your help." Tseng's voice floated up from downstairs, and both of us ran to him immediately to discover what it was he wanted. He had searched the entire lower floor and found that one door was locked from the outside with the key still in the door.

Nothing prepared us for what we saw. We saw a young woman in a Turk's uniform, gagged and tightly bound in the corner of the room. Her ankle's were tightly tied together with a harsh role and her wrist's were cuffed and nailed to the wall above her head.

Blonde hair was caked in blood and years of grime. Heavily matted and unbrushed, it covered the majority of her face. Her body was twisted awkwardly, her breathing heavy and laboured. Bruises and blood covered her entire body, and her face was swollen and beaten.

She lifted her head as Tseng shone a torch on her, and I saw her flinch away. She closed her eyes, whispering something under her breath.

We'd just found Khalidah. And she was a captive.


End file.
